


Captivated

by tillfeelsdouspart



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, YouTube, larry stylinson - Freeform, long distance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-25 23:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tillfeelsdouspart/pseuds/tillfeelsdouspart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Harry Styles? He's pretty cool. Great voice. He's not bad looking either..."</p><p>"I actually watch Louis Tomlinson's videos. Usually I don't watch vloggers but there's something different about him, y'know?"</p><p>A Youtube AU where Harry sings and Louis vlogs and they fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Louis

**Author's Note:**

> I AM SO EXCITED TO WRITE THIS. LITERALLY. I WAS SCREAMING IN MY FRIEND'S FACE BECAUSE OF THIS. I got the idea from Troye Sivan and Tyler Oakley's relationship, because even though Tyler denied it Troyler is real. Ok? Ok. Hope you like it xxx

 

Louis still remembers the day he got a Youtube. In fact, he remembers the hour, the minute, and even the second that he clicked the "Join" button. In that moment, a dozen doors opened for him, and it was all new and fresh and exciting, and Louis was next to clueless. 

It was the middle of December, most people were leaving uni for the holidays, but he and his best mate Zayn were two of the small amount that stayed. He remembers sitting down in front of the shitty computer and turning on the even shittier webcam, and the two boys made their first video, filled with banter, food fights, and dancing (they may or may not have done a dramatic rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Kiss Me").

He had watched the subscriber count rise from 1, to 10, to 100, to 1,000. He remembers the first like he got on a video, the first good comment, and the first not-so-good comment. He remembers people tweeting him, saying "You're my inspiration," or "You make me smile." 

He didn't even realize that this was what he really wanted to be doing until the day he reached one million subscribers. That meant one million people around the world watched him everyday, and that number was still growing. It was a bit overwhelming to him, because _why would people want to watch him?_ He was nothing special.

The one thing he didn't remember about the past year and a half was falling in love, because it hadn't happened yet. He had gotten the comment loads of times. "Do you have a girlfriend?" "Are you single?" "Are you dating anyone?" And the answer was always no.

* * *

"Hey guys! So today me and Zayn- say hi, Zayn- are gonna be doing the chubby bunny challenge!" Louis said into the camera, with enthusiasm he wasn't really feeling. He had a shit ton of homework due tomorrow, but he had gotten so many complaints on Twitter and Tumblr about him not making a video in a while (it had been three days.). 

"So we've got our marshmallows, and we've got our mouths-" Zayn snickered at that. "-so I guess we're ready... Zayn, you go first."

"Why do I have to go first?" Zayn whined, reaching into the bag anyway. He shoved the first marshmallow into his mouth and looked blankly at Louis, who was smirking. 

There was a moment of silence, and then Louis blurted out, "You have to say 'chubby bunny,' you idiot." 

Zayn rolled his eyes. "Chubby bunny, you idiot." 

"That's better." Louis said, and got a marshmallow of his own. "Chubby bunny." 

This continued for about ten minutes before Louis spit his out into the garbage can placed in between them.

"I AM THE WINNAH!" Zayn screamed after he spit his out as well, earning an eyeroll and elbow in the ribs from Louis. He was still doubled over the trash can, spitting the white sticky stuff out of his mouth, and Zayn wasn't even going to make a comment.

"So I guess Zayn wins this one," Louis said, sticking out his lower lip at the other boy, who enveloped him in a hug. He could see the comments already. 

ZOUIS FOREVER! xxxxxxxx   
They should date.   
r they going out? 

And there was always,

Faggots.  
They're almost to gay to function. Lol, like for mean girls reference! xD   
they should go to hell 

Being "Youtube famous" was definitely bittersweet. 

"Well, that's it for today, guys!" Louis said, still being held tight by Zayn. "If you liked it, make sure to give it a thumbs up or comment, and if you want to see more of my face and sometimes Zayn's, then you can subscribe to my channel. I love you guys... bye!" Zayn gave a halfhearted wave before Louis turned off the camera.

"Jesus, I'm exhausted. Remind me why I agreed to film that with you again?" Zayn said, walking away from Louis and flopping down on his bed. 

"Because you love me. And apparently three days is now a century." Louis replied, already connecting his camera to their Apple computer, sitting shiny and new on the desk by the window. 

"My mouth tastes like marshmallows." said Zayn. 

"Mine does too. Should I upload it in 1080p and make them wait longer?" 

"You know the fans, Louis. Remember last time? They nearly tore your limbs off via Instagram." 

"Right. 720 it is." Louis sighed. 

They didn't talk for a few minutes, the only sounds being the steady whir of the air conditioning and the clicking of the mouse.   
"I'm gonna go get us some food." Zayn said, heaving himself up from his place on the tiny bed. 

"Chinese?" Louis said hopefully, turning away from the computer screen. 

"Just what I was thinking," Zayn smiled. He grabbed his wallet and phone, walking towards the door. "Call me if you need anything." 

"I will. Love you." 

"Love you too, babe." Zayn said, and he was gone. 

Louis understood where the fans came from with the whole "Zouis" thing. He and Zayn acted like a couple, always hugging and cuddling and calling each other pet names. But they had dated in the past, and it only made things awkward between them. So they broke up, and went back to late night movie marathons in their dorm room and falling asleep in the same bed (they were barely big enough for just one person, let alone two. One of them always ended up on the floor).

* * *

  Later, Louis was curled up in bed with his Chinese food (which was quite good) and his laptop, scrolling through the endless comments about his new video. They ranged from ALL CAPS AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS BECAUSE OMG!!!!!!!! LOUIS TOMLINSON'S NEW VIDEO!!!!!!!!!! to flat out insults, calling him ugly and a fag and others that he didn't even want to think about. #LouisNewVideo was trending worldwide on Twitter, and his entire Tumblr dash was filled with screenshots and GIFS from the video. He saw various GIFS of Zayn and him hugging, and the captions were filled with hearts and "otp" and "JUST GET MARRIED ALREADY." 

Zayn joined him after awhile, drinking tea and wearing one of Louis' sweaters. They laughed at the funny comments and ignored the hate. 

And at three A.M. when Louis was about to fall asleep, he realized if he squinted hard enough, he could see the stars shining over the busy city lights.


	2. Harry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So you met Louis, now it's time to meet Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the positive feedback so far! Hope you like Chapter Two :) xxx

"Hey, Youtube."

It was 1 A.M. on a cold winter night when Harry made his first Youtube video. He was in Niall's basement, the blonde sitting next to him with a guitar.

"So, erm, I don't really know how this works, but I'm gonna do a cover of Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap... hope you like it." He looked at Niall as he strummed the opening notes, and then he started singing. His voice was a bit shaky and nervous at first, but soon, he lost himself in the song, forgetting that the camera was even there. 

His friends and parents had always told him he had an amazing voice, and Harry had always shied away from the comments, blushing and mumbling, "I'm really not that great." He had only made the video out of complete boredom, and if just _one_  person watched it and liked it, he would be perfectly happy. 

He had been singing for as long as he could remember. At family parties, in bed in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep, in the shower, in the hallways at school. Whenever he wasn't singing, he had music on as a substitute, letting the lyrics drown out the rest of the world. His mother was always yelling at him to turn it down, _Harry, I can hear it from downstairs!_ and his sister just rolled her eyes. But Harry persisted, still singing and dancing and hanging posters of the bands he admired up on his wall.

By the time he was about ten, though, things started to change. The kids at school teased him, calling him weird and a fag and a pussy. He would come home crying every day, run up to his room, and listen to Coldplay songs on repeat, ignoring the gentle knocking on his door and his mother's concerned voice pleading, "Harry, baby, please let me in."

When he was 15, he tried not to care anymore, pretending not to hear the taunts and the whispering in the hallways, but he was lonely. Niall was his only friend, because he understood him- music had changed his life too. "A moment, a love, a dream, a laugh, a kiss, a cry, our rights, our wrongs..."

* * *

 "Hey, we got our first view!" Harry said excitedly to Niall, who was sitting on the couch opposite him, lightly strumming his guitar.

"Really?" the other boy looked up with hope in his blue eyes.

"Yeah- oh wait. That was just me watching it. Never mind."

Niall sighed, resuming strumming his guitar.

"It's only been up for, like, 20 minutes, I'm sure we'll get at least one view. And not from me next time." Harry pointed out optimistically.

"I hope so, Haz." Niall said, yawning.

"Niall HORAN!" Harry gasped, clutching his heart dramatically. "Was that a _yawn_ I just heard?"

Niall chuckled, blinking a few times as if to ward away the sleep that was threatening to pull him under. "Never, Harry Styles. Who do you think I am? It's only-" he glanced up at the clock on the wall. "-1:56... the night is still young."

* * *

Two and a half hours later, after smuggling Niall's parents' beer out of the garage, finding spare blankets in the linen closet, nearly killing the neighbor's dog by throwing a beer bottle, and trodding through wet snow in nothing but their socks, Niall and Harry were properly drunk. Their words were slurred and mostly incoherent, their veins were buzzing, and they somehow thought it was a good idea to spread blankets out on the frosty grass and watch the stars. It was comical, really, Harry kept flinging the snow covered blankets in Niall's face, and Niall kept tripping over his own feet. They finally managed to get the blankets in order, and they flopped down onto them, cold beer bottles in their even colder hands. 

"Niall?"

"Hm?"

"What's the difference between living and being alive?"

Usually, people ask stupid questions when they're drunk. But Harry asked deep, philosophical ones, even though he couldn't form an actual, normal sentence. 

"Oh... I dunno. Living, I think, is just being there, just taking up space, and being alive actually has a purpose, y'know?" All of Niall's words were slowed down and slurred, and he used lots of hand motions. 

"Yeah." Harry hummed in agreement, taking another swig of beer. 

"Do you think you're living or being alive?" Niall asked, eyes closing. From being drunk or tired, Harry didn't know. 

"No idea." he answered. 

"I answered your deep question, you've gotta answer mine." Niall whined. 

"I did answer. I honestly have no idea."

Niall seemed to accept this, and rolled over onto his side on the blanket. Minutes later, Harry heard him snoring. 

But the curly haired boy stayed awake for a while, staring at the stars and wondering if someone out there was watching them too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise it will get more interesting after this. I'm sorry if this was horribly written and short, I'm exhausted and I have to wake uo for school in 5 hours. Hope you liked it, stay tuned for Chapter Three xoxoxox


	3. Louis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis finds out who Harry is (oh, the suspense!) Also, I know next to nothing about British schooling/uni/whatever. Oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote part of this at my sister's cheerleading game... Lauren and Anna were there. (imnotcrazy-imafangirl and larounor on tumblr, they're perfect)  
> Hope ya like it. I'm probably going to update every Saturday/Sunday, but if i'm super busy, I apologize. Love you all! xxxx

"Get me out of here." Louis sighed to Zayn the next day. It seemed like every day was the same for him: Wake up, drag self out of bed, lazily get dressed and brush teeth, sit through a million years' worth of lectures and taking notes, go back to dorm, complain to Zayn, internet for the rest of the night. 

"Out of where?" the other boy grunted from his bed, scrolling through his phone.

"Here. School. Take me anywhere, I don't care." 

"Ok, Dr. Seuss." Zayn snorted, still staring at the screen in front of him.

Louis threw a pillow halfheartedly in his direction. It missed by approximately a mile.

"God. I need a boyfriend. I can't just sit here making Youtube videos and telling you about my life problems for the rest of my life." Louis sat down in front of the computer and logged onto Twitter.

"Why not?" Zayn asked, finally looking at Louis, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

" _Because._ I want to do something with my life. Something amazing." he scrolled through his mentions, the words "I LOVE YOU" and "FOLLOW ME" screaming at him through the screen. 

"Lou, you have 1 million followers on Twitter. That's gotta count for something."

Louis glared at him over his shoulder.

"Fine. Join match.com."

"I really hope you're kidding." Louis said, pretending not to notice the smirk on Zayn's face.  _Follow, follow, follow._ He smiled at the thought of a girl, possibly on the other side of the world, seeing that he just followed them. It made him feel better. Kind of.

"Come  _on_ , Lou. You know I am. You'll find someone. Maybe."

Louis gave in, a weary grin taking over his face. "I hate you a little."

"Just a little?"

"Only a little."

* * *

 "Might do a twitcam in a few mins !" Louis tweeted later that night, around ten o'clock. He and Zayn were bored out of their wits, and nothing cures boredom like a horde of teenage girls stampeding onto the Twitcam website and crashing it. Right?

Instantly, his mentions and DMs went insane. 

"I really hope this doesn't happen like last time," Zayn murmured, fixing his hair in the mirror on the wall.

"But why not, Zaynie? It's like having a small army that you can use to break websites."

Zayn rolled his eyes, grabbing an extra chair from the corner of the room and pulling it over to the desk. Louis already had typed in the website, but it was taking a little while to load because of the previously mentioned small army.

Louis hummed a random tune under his breath as the page loaded, and already thousands of people were watching. When their faces popped up on the camera, the tweets literally _exploded_ _._

_OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU_

_NOTICE ME?! PLEEEEASEEDSDSDD_

_LIOUS AN ZAYYN OMFREW_

_  
_"Can everyone hear and see us?" Louis said, smiling at the tweets.

He swore he could  _hear_ a unanimous 'yes.'

"Hiiiiii." Zayn said, drawing out the vowel and waving. Louis wondered how many hearts he just broke; dating Zayn may have been a thing of the past, but the boy could be a damn Burberry model.

"How's everyone doing?" Louis asked. "Shoutout to Lauren."

It continued like that for about fifteen minutes, with Louis asking questions and getting a flood of responses almost immediately. It was kind of funny actually, he could picture the girls hunched over their laptops, tweeting as fast and as much as they could to get his attention.

"How about you guys ask the questions? It's feeling a bit one sided." he said, following a few people that Zayn pointed out. He scanned over the questions for an interesting (and PG) one.

"Hmmmm...ok. Erin asked if I have any siblings. I do, I have four sisters, Lottie, Fizzy, Daisy, and Phoebe." Louis answered. "And I love you too."

"Anna asked what my favorite song is. Probably Look After You." he said. "Any song by The Fray, really."

Louis paused for a moment, looking at one of the names on the screen.

**_@Harry_Styles_ ** _what is stopping you from doing the things you actually want to do ?_

_  
_The question took him by surprise. Usually, the tweets were either an extremely sexual innuendo or an excited message with all caps and emoticons. It irritated him a little, to be quite honest. This "Harry" guy seemed to see right through him, and Louis felt vulnerable. He hated feeling vulnerable.

"Hey, Harry, this isn't really a good time to be deep and philisophical. Maybe another time." he said almost bitterly, regretting it as soon as he said it.

So despite his annoyance for the question and the asker, after the twitcam was over, he searched Harry's name and clicked the follow button before he could change his mind. As the white button turned blue, Louis started to question his motives.

* * *

"you never answered my question."

Louis stared angrily at the direct message from a  _certain person_ , no name needed. He had woken up to follow and that message from said person, and it made him mad, for some reason.

 _Stupid Harry,_  Louis thought as he went to the boy's profile.  _Stupid, stupid,-_ _WERE THOSE CURLS IN HIS PROFILE PICTURE?- stupid._

"Zayn."

The other boy looked up. "Yeah?"

"Do you know who Harry Styles is? Says here in his bio that he's some singer on Youtube."

"Aren't you the one with the Youtube account?" Zayn replied.

" _Zayn_." Louis said again, exasperated.

"Yeah, I know him. Lots of hair?"

"Yup."

"He's got like half a million subscribers. Pretty good singer, if I say so myself. Why?"

"Just wondering." Louis said, already on the Youtube app, looking up  _Harry Styles_.

"How did I not know about him already?" Louis asked.  _620,113 subscribers?_

"Because the only Youtubers you watch are Tyler Oakley, Troye Sivan, and yourself."

"First of all, Tyler and Troye are flawless. Second of all, that's not true."

Zayn looked at him, just  _looked_ at him, and Louis gave up.

"Fine. Maybe a little true. But he's cute- did I just say that?"

"Yeah, you kind of did." Zayn said, smirking.

Harry's profile picture smiled cheesily at him through his phone screen. Louis wanted to punch him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u only want me wen im bacon  
> Thanks for reading :) x


	4. Harry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this up! Hope ya like it :)

"Are you seriously still obsessing over that Tomlinson kid?" Niall asked Harry exasperatedly from across Harry's bedroom. It had been three days since they uploaded their video, and ever since Louis had talked about it, it gained views by the second. He kind of owes him for that. 

  
"First of all, he's not a kid, he's older than you. And no."  
Niall grabbed Harry's phone out of his hands. "Really? Explain the 5 tabs open to his Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and freaking Google+. Is that like a thing, now?"

  
"Just some light research. Leave me alone." Harry snatched the phone back. 

  
"I would pay a lot of money to see your search history right now."

  
Harry ignored him. 

  
"'How many times a day does Louis Tomlinson pee?"

  
Harry finally looked up at him, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. "Why would I even want to know that?"

  
"Because you're an idiot. It's probably on there, anyway. Check tumblr."

  
"No, I will not 'check tumblr' for Louis Tomlinson's average piss schedule. What I will do is freak out internally because a hot famous boy is DMing me on Twitter."

  
"He's not really all that famous," Niall grunted, picking at his cuticles. 

  
"1 million followers? You've got like 8."

 

"Die."

  
"Okay, jealous." Harry chuckled, and ruffled the other boy's blond hair. "Oh, and 3."

  
Niall looked up, confused. "Huh?"

  
"He pees three times a day."

* * *

  
"Would sending him a message saying 'Make out with me' be too spontaneous?" 

  
Three days later, nothing had changed. Harry was still obsessing over Louis and Niall couldn't care less. It had gotten to the point where Niall could grunt and Harry would still be happy. 

  
"I don't know, Haz. That could be counted as sexual harassment."

  
The curly haired boy pondered it for a moment, then decided on asking him what his favorite color was. 

  
"God, I'm lame."

  
"Yeah."

  
"You weren't supposed to agree with that."  
"Yeah."

  
"I'm done with you." Harry said, and chucked a pillow at his head. Niall didn't even flinch. 

* * *

  
So far, Harry knew that Louis' favorite color was red, he had four sisters, he was from Doncaster, he hated carrots (contrary to popular belief), his parents were divorced, and he loved acting. 

  
Harry felt like he was a schoolgirl with a crush. At least five times a day, his phone would beep and he would dive for it, no matter what was in the way. He ran into his mum at one point. 

  
"Who's that?" she asked, trying to look over his shoulder. 

  
Thankfully, Harry was a good head taller than her, so he just mumbled, "Nothing. Just a subscriber," and ran upstairs, where he could fangirl in peace.  
____________________  
"You should give me your number or something, because texting's so much easier!" 

  
Harry glared the words looming on the tiny phone screen.   
All he was seeing was "Give me your number."

  
It was like one of those cartoons where the angel's on one shoulder and the devil is on the other. The angel was telling him to save his feelings, don't waste your time on someone you can't have. 

  
The devil was saying to be selfish and flirt like there was no tomorrow  In the end, he went with the devil. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was shitty, I know. Shitty writing from a shitty person oops

**Author's Note:**

> Forgot to mention above that (unfortunately) I am not associated with the characters in this story in any way, shape, or form, yada yada.  
> Thanks for reading! xox


End file.
